I'm a drummer who owns a guitar which I do not play well. This blog is a chronical of my guitar playing experience with Rocksmith.
I mostly play a Michael Kelly Valor II with coil-split humbuckers and a Fender MIM Telecaster (and a few others). I play on XBox 360/Live using a wireless transmitter. My kids play, too (Fender Squier Strat and Washburn/Lyon LG115) and I'll cover some of their Rocksmith experiences if they can ever stay un-grounded long enough to use the XBox.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Wow - it's been about 3 weeks since I've done anything on this blog. The main reason is that our IT department recently made some changes to the network and I'm not unable to load this blog on my computer at the office. Frankly, by the time I get home from the office, I don't feel much like getting back on a computer.

New PRS Tremonti SE
The most exciting guitar-related news is my new PRS Tremonti SE. It's a nice maroon color with the bird inlays on the fret board. A got it new at a discount due to some shipping damage around the volume/tone knobs. Still not sure I'm going to keep it, but I do really like it. I consider it my first REAL electric guitar. It's certainly my most expensive so far. My others are an Epi LP Spl II, Epi LP Jr., and the Frankenstein Yamaha EG112 with mystery neck. None of which cost me over $150. The PRS set me back twice that amount and some change. But, it's got a very nice tone, quiet pick-ups (i.e. no static or hum), and feels good in the hands. Well, all except the neck finish. It's got a glossy neck which I don't like. I really prefer the natural finish on my EG112's no-name neck. Anyway, here it is:

PRS Tremonti SE - See Below for Better Shot of True Color

A Much Better Photo of the True Color - But Also Showingthe Battle Damage that Got Me a Decent Mark-Down. Maybe.

Apparently it got dropped during shipping and landed on the knobs. The finish is cracked and the top is cracked. I looked in the pot cavity and could see where the wood was actually cracked. But, it's not in a place where the sound is affected. The knob also shows a little damage to the inside but it's not loose on the pot or anything. Could make for a good story - something about how I was playing this gig this one night and somebody jumped up on stage and tried to attack the bass player and I whacked the bastard in the side of the head with my PRS. . .

Not Keen on the Non-Adjustable Bridge

I was a little surprised to see that PRS puts a non-adjustable bridge on this guitar. Well, it's not truly NON-adjustable, but there are no individual saddles. You have to adjust all strings at the same time - or none at all. If I keep this guitar, I'll probably replace this bridge. Although, as far as I can tell, the intonation is perfect as is. So, I won't be spending money on a new bridge any time soon.

Angela - 100% Accuracy Run
I haven't been setting the world on fire with scores. I had a competitive run on I Want Some More a few weeks back when that was the Ubi Forum weekly challenge song. But, one night I was playing multi-player with my kids and I scored a 100% accuracy on Angela! That's my second 100% run. Funnily enough, my 100% (403 notes played in a row) score was not my highest. Seems like it would be. . .

Events 8 and 9
I played Event 8 finally and started working on my Event 9 set list.

Event 8 was pretty good until the Encore. I ended up with 499,948 RSP for the event!
Burnished: 72253
Gobbledigook: 83240
More than a Feeling: 69991
Islands: 83143
Icky Thump: 95896
Smoke on the Water: 82411

Pretty good, I'd say. But, then I get Space Ostrich as my encore. I'd never played it before - typical for encores - and it showed. I mean , it was horrible. 13014. So, no double encore on this one even though I was only 9 points from having 6 songs above 70k on an event.

Event 9 is a 7-song set including Slither, We Share the Same Skies, Chimney, House of the Rising Sun, Panic Switch, Step Out of the Car,and Between the Lines. Half of the songs are still below 40k, but I got 50k on Between the Lines and 64k on Panic Switch on my very first play. Slither started off slowly for me, but after several plays I've gotten that one up to 82k. Still planning to not play the event until everything is above 70k.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Ran through the songs one more time last night and decided to just do it. Practice scores were pretty close to previous high scores, only 12 points off on I Miss You, and all were above 70k. So, why not?

I did run through the pre-chorus and chorus in RR Leveler on I Miss You before I started the event. I leveled both up a notch in 30 tries.

There was a little adrenaline rush going into it, but I didn't have the same sense of excitement on this one that I had on my first few events. I think it's getting harder to get caught up in the "moment" now. You know how it is when you get to be an International Headliner. You start to get a little jaded and burned out. Hopefully I won't have to turn to hard drugs to stay on top. . .

I think A More Perfect Union levelled up on me. Seemed like there were LOTS more notes when I got to the solo. But, the Irish pipe melody bit with all the hammer-on's seems to have levelled down somehow. I was a little disappointed with this song. The other two main songs went pretty well, I'd say.

The biggest disappointment was the Encore. I liked the song. Never heard it before, but it didn't take any time at all to warm up to it. And, it was really easy. So, I don't quite understand why I sucked so badly on it. I've played a bunch of songs that I've never heard before and I've done a lot better than 17,905 on the first play. And, because I sucked so much on this encore, I didn't get a second one. Since I've got several songs mastered I was afraid I'd get a MM encore. Still not quite sure how that works, but I'd have probably done better if I had gotten a MM encore!

Future "Tour Dates" and a Change in Strategy?
I've got about 4 or 5 more events already lined up and waiting. I've been putting off events because I want to really learn songs instead of just whipping through events for the sake of "The Journey." But, my strategy may have been unnecessary.

I have noticed, looking at my upcoming event set lists, that songs from previous events are starting to pop up again on new events - with much higher qualifying scores. Apparently I really didn't need to lay off of events to work on improving songs that I played in earlier events. Those songs will re-appear in future events and I'll have to improve on them just to qualify them for subsequent events. In other words, RS was one step ahead of me! So, now I'm thinking perhaps I should just go back to an event-based practice schedule - but I'll still put off playing events until I get all the songs up to 70k or above.

A couple of my upcoming events are big - 6 or 7 songs each. That's a lot of new material. But, I'm not even attempting the Weekly Challenge this week (Public Enemy No.1), partly because I don't have that song but mainly because it's Thursday and I still don't have that song. Plus, it's probably got a huge solo which is my weak spot. I've got some time to work on new material.

I've also got a couple of events lined up where all but one or two songs are already qualified. Not quite sure how that happened. They aren't songs I've played in events before. I'll have to look closer and see if they're all DLC songs or something. I suspect that's the case.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

For the past week or so I've been casually getting ready to play Event 7 while also putzing around with Scale Runner, the Weekly Challenge Song (Outshined), and a couple of songs that I still haven't mastered - mostly due to solos. I introduced a guitar player I know to RS, too.

In the past several days I've mastered two songs, unlocked a few new tones and one venue, qualified all three songs in my Event 7 setlist and got all three songs over 70k, and won the Advanced category on the Ubisoft/Rocksmith Forum Weekly Challenge Song competition. All in all, probably one of my more productive RS weeks!

Also, Monday I picked up a used and mildly abused Fender DG-5 acoustic with a cordura nylon padded soft-case. Something to drag out to the ball field or and not worry about scratching it. It must have been in somebody's attic through the summer with the strings tight - the bridge has pulled up at the back and is warped. But, I slowly tuned it up and the bridge holds! So, I'm just leaving it like that and hoping it doesn't suddenly let go while I'm playing.

Event 7
If you follow this blog, you know that I don't like to play an event until I've got all the songs up to at least 70k. That's a level where I feel like I'm actually playing the song versus playing a handful of notes. I don't worry about Mastering songs until after an event - otherwise I'd still be working on Event 2! - but I do like to feel like I'm at least halfway playing the song before I play it in an Event.

Event 7 has been on hold for weeks while I worked on mastering older songs, but I was ready to tackle a few new songs to keep things interesting. Since my Event Manager only put 3 songs in Event 7 for me, I could work this event into my practice time without putting my other goals on hold.

Here's the setlist: A More Perfect UnionI Miss You Sunshine of Your Love

I Miss You
I started with I Miss You (combo) last Sunday, mainly because I was really getting tired of hearing it every time I started up RS. I made my qualifying score of 22,200 (81/32) on my second play through, which dropped the song off the main Journey page and back into the song list; so I don't hear it any more! Not quite sure how I managed to qualify this one so fast because a week later I still play the main riff very badly. Sounds like absolute crap to me - just a distorted buzzing mess. For some reason I buzz the E string on my fingernail when fretting the 5th string on this riff. It works somewhat better if I use my second and third fingers instead of my first and second fingers but it's still sloppy.

After qualifying it, I put this song aside for a few days and got the other two songs qualified. When I came back to I Miss You I was able to improve each time I played through it. After 4 more runs I had my score up to 54154 (78/21). A couple of days later I was able to improve again (with some restarts) to 64,030 (82/40). Then, after playing through it 6 times total, I hit the wall. Last night, after a couple of nights off of it, I got a 53,306 (73/40).

When I get to this point with a song, I go to Riff Repeater to clean it up. Last night I worked the Riff in Free Speed enough to remember how it goes and then moved on. Didn't try to level it up or anything. Just went on to the Pre-Chorus. I went from 43 to 62% in 30 lives on the Pre-Chorus. Then I worked on the Chorus in Free Speed. At 43% mastery, I got 100% speed on the first try so I went to the Leveler to see what I could do there. Took 30 tries to level up from 43% to 75%.

Then I played through the whole song and got 71,602 (85/73) - a huge improvement. Also above my personal 70k threshold. Also enough to unlock a tone (Calebasas Phase) and an XBox Live Achievement - "Tone Peddler." (I guess you get that when you've unlocked some specific number of tones. . . ) So, I Miss You was ready for Event 7 and over 70k in 10 plays (with a few restarts the other night).

Sunshine of Your Love
I started working on this one last Tuesday and made the 19,200 qualifying score on my very first run through it. Got a 33,319 (91/68) on the first play. I progressed reasonably well on the next two plays: 44,049 and 48,070, although my streaks and accuracy dropped off some.

I played this one a few more times last Thursday night and continued to improve from 57,719 to 79,905 (77/49) in a total of 7 plays. This unlocked another tone: Psychedelic Blues.

I've heard there's a tricky solo in this one, so I expect to hit the wall soon. But, I've met my event threshold so I'll worry about the solo when I work on mastering the song after the event.

A More Perfect Union
One cool thing about RS is that it has introduced me to some new music. I was not looking forward to playing this song, but the sample that plays when you scroll to it in the song list does not do it justice. I really enjoy playing it although I don't consider it a favorite it's probably in the top half.

I pulled this one up for the first time last Wednesday. Played through it one time and beat the 28,800 qualifying score with a 45,565 (68/74). Either I'm getting to be a fairly decent guitar player or RS's qualifying scores are a bit low. . . (I agree that you don't want to make it overly difficult for beginners to qualify songs for events, but if I can qualify this song on the first try I've gotta wonder. Maybe this is just more proof that Rocksmith works.)

Like the other two songs on this Event list, I managed to improve consistently the next few times I played this one. Thursday night I played it 4 more times and progressed from 47,594 to 54,796 (83/85).

I never really hit the wall on this one, but I pre-emptively went to the Riff Repeater after a few more plays through the whole song. I was up to 64,528 (85/89) when I started to feel like I had leveled up to the limits of my sight reading ability. This song has a LOT of notes in it. And, it moves.

I started with the Hooks, 1 and 3. (Somehow I managed to max Hook 2 during play-through.) I worked Hook 1 30x in Free Speed and got up to a high of 99.9% speed. Didn't try to max Hook 1 in Leveler at that point. Don't know why - probably tired of playing it. On to Hook 3. I got up to 100% speed on this one at 50% mastery and then 60% mastery in under a dozen tries. So, I went to the Leveler and Maxed the phrase in 14 tries.

Then I worked the Chorus. Free Speed got me up to 99.6 in 30 tries. Close enough to try Leveler. Took 15x to move from 50% to Max.

When I played through the whole song again, I scored a 66,647 (81/122). Not quite the improvement I would have hoped for, but this song has a lot going on and I did improve my score.

Last night I dropped off to 60,381 (77/107) on my first play. Hook 1 in Free Speed again got up to 99.8 in 30 tries but I didn't try to Level up. Hook 2 had leveled down during play so I had to work that one back up; too - 5x to max it out again in Leveler. Apparently I dropped the Chorus all the way back to 80% and had to Level that phrase back up. Took me 26x to get it Maxed again. Weird since it only took 15x to Max it the first time.

Then I tackled the Riff. Got up to 100% speed in Free Speed in 2 tries at 50% mastery. Took 30x in Leveler to move from 46% to 92%. Very challenging. But fun.

After all that I got a 71,742 (72/72) when I played through the whole song. Unlocked another tone: Garden State Parkway. And, this one is ready for Event 7.

The Event
I'll probably want to run through the songs at least one more time each before I play Event 7, but I think I'll probably do it this event this week.

Rocksmith Notes: I noticed that by qualifying all the songs but not playing the event, RS doesn't play any song when I first start up! Sort of a relief. I was REALLY tired of hearing I Miss You every single time I started RS.

The Week 12 Challenge Song - Outshined - was one of those songs I had played in an event some time ago and managed to get a pretty good score on but just couldn't master due to the solo. Working on it for the Weekly Challenge did help me progress, but I still haven't mastered it even after a couple of very intense and frustrating nights of work. ﻿
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I didn't start working on this one for the Weekly Challenge until Tuesday. I jumped right into Riff Repeater and started in on the Solo. After countless tries in Free Speed at 70% mastery, I took a shot at Leveler to see what I could do. Not much. After 30x, I had progressed from 70% to 76%. I played through the song a few times and had a hard time remembering how it went. I ended up with a 98,633 (91/53).

More RR work Wednesday night didn't help. Thursday night, I was able to Max the pre-chorus (apparently I leveled that phrase down while trying to remember how the song went). I got the solo up to 99.8% speed at 76% mastery, but it wasn't pretty. Much swearing and at one point I yanked the cord out of my XBox (fortunately, they put that breakaway connector on the cord). Bumped my high score up to 104,503 (93/88).

Friday we had a birthday party and played some multiplayer, but I didn't work on this song at all. That put me in crunch time on Saturday night. Figuring there was no point in hammering away at the solo in Riff Repeater, I just played through the whole song six times trying to tighten it up. I improved 5 times from 103,727 (94/100) to 108,563 (94/123). Then I dropped off to a 107,841 (95/83) - a pretty clear sign that I was done for the night. I posted my 108,563 to the Forum.

Sunday evening I took the same approach - just played the song over and over. Seven times. It took three times just to beat Saturday night's high score, so things were moving slowly. And, from that point they actually went downhill. I peaked on my third play at 109,583 (95/96) and then gradually dropped off. The solo was still keeping me out of the Expert category so I went into the Riff Repeater and worked it 30 more times, leveling up from 76 to 82%. That's all I had.

Of course, it's much harder to Max a phrase when the rhythm changes as you level up. Riff Repeater gives you a certain rhythm all along, but when you make that last jump from 93 to 100% and start playing doublets instead of single notes on the G-string, the rhythm also changes from a fairly straight lick to some sort of syncopated strum. The strum would be fine, but - dammit! - the single notes in the lower mastery levels should be presented in that same rhythm. This is where the Note Highway notation really falls short - the relative spacing of notes is not a good way to convey a specific rhythm.

Despite my frustration and nearly throwing my guitar and XBox through the living room window Sunday night, when I went to post my final high score I discovered that I had come out on top of the Advanced category! And, I don't even consider myself an "Advanced" player. I think I'd describe myself more as "Intermediate." But, here are the results:

I actually beat this winning score on Sunday evening, but by the time I posted my lastest scores it was too late (as you can barely see in the top lefthand corner of the screenshot, it was about 4:20 AM when I uploaded my last score). The results had been tallied and I came out on top with what was actually only my 4th best score.

This isn't quite the lifetime achievement that my one and only goal scored in competition ice hockey was at age 41, but it's up there!

Friday, May 4, 2012

My son and I were playing a little multi-player mode tonight and he had the controller. So, despite the fact that I've hated I Can't Hear You for some time that's what we played. He was working toward 70k to get his tone pedal. I really wasn't even hoping to match my high score - I wrote this one off as pointless to pursue weeks ago. I think I had like 95k.

But, guess what. We're playing along and I'm really not even trying very hard and I notice that there's this "extra" note in the main riff that I've never seen before. It's an additional hit on the 6th string at the 3d fret before you jump to the 4th string. Huh. What do you know?

Started playing the "new" note and ended up with a 99k when my son got his tone pedal and packed it in for the night. I couldn't quit with a 99 (and all phrases maxed), so I kept at it. Next play put me just over 100k (100457 99/264) - enough to Master it!!! After 45 plays. Ridiculous - all because I had never noticed that one note. . .

Played through it in MM a few times - still needs some work, but I got through it. That's two mastered this week! Hopefully I can maintain this pace.

Also introduced a buddy to RS tonight. He seemed favorably impressed. Had a little trouble getting used to the color-coded strings, but when I switched his account setting to the "upside down" (E on the bottom) display he caught on quickly. I personally prefer the "looking through the neck from the back" display, but it's nice of RS to provide both.

My son has mastered Go with the Flow! In fact, he is playing his first MM performance as I write this and he seems to be doing pretty well so far.

And, he's finished, with a score of 185546 (86/132).

Not bad for an 11-year old. OK - I know it's just Go with the Flow, widely accepted to be the easiest guitar song of all time. It's not like he mastered Hangar 18 or anything. Still. It's my boy! Can't help being a little proud.

Beyond just being proud of my son, this also sort of shows that kids can do this. My son is playing his full-sized Squier Strat. I've tried to get him to try the LP Junior which has a shorter neck, but he likes the Strat for whatever reason. (Probably because it's lighter. Even the Epi LPs tend to be a bit heavy on the shoulder.)

Not only is he playing a guitar, he's learning some classic rock. Now he's running through Smoke on the Water.

Still trying to assemble some scaled-down guitars to try out. Might have that opportunity tonight. If I can pull it off, I'll definitely post the results.

We recently had a thread on the Ubi forum about how old many of us seem to be (average age on the forum seems to be about 50. . . while the younger RS set seems to hang out primarily on FB and bitch about why Ubi RS includes songs which aren't heavy metal). Might be interesting to post something on the Ubi forum to determine how many younger players there are out there.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Nearly 4 months have elapsed since I got Rocksmith and started playing it. We got our XBox and Rocksmith for Christmas 2011, but then we left town for about a week so it hasn't quite been a full 4 months yet.

I reached Level 7 about a month and a half ago. Last week I reached Level 8. (Apparently Level 8 is still just International Headliner, the same
as Level 7. I hear the names associated with Levels 9
and 10 are sort of goofy.) Only three more levels to go and I'll by a Rocksmith. For what that's
worth. I'm really more interested in just being a better guitar player.
Which, thanks to Rocksmith, I am.

Spreadsheets with scores and dates and accuracies and streaks from back in March and last week are below. But, generally, here's what they tell me:
I've mastered 10 different songs and played them from memory at least once. I've also mastered alternate arrangements of 3 of those songs (Angela, Surf Hell, and Satisfaction). That's a pretty solid set worth of music that I've learned and memorized since starting Rocksmith. I've got 4 song scores over 100k and just need to master one phrase (generally a solo) on each to master those. Don't tell me you can't learn anything from playing Rocksmith.

I've played a total of 58 songs and arrangements, including 8 DLC songs. I've got another 4 songs between 90k and 100k and several between 80k and 90k. I've unlocked one double-encore super secret song. I've completed 6 events.

I've got 20 songs with scores still below 70k. And, I've still got over 40 songs and arrangements from the original Rocksmith song list (the one that comes with the game) that I haven't even touched yet. Plus, a TON of DLC that Ubisoft has made available over the past few months. Level-wise it almost looks like I'm burning through the game - but there's plenty left and more DLC gets uploaded faster than I can keep up with it! (Even if I could play them all, I couldn't afford to download everything!) But I do sort of wonder what happens, game-wise, once I reached Level 11. Others have apparently done it and restarted the whole game over again. Since RS seems to sort of randomly generate events from all available songs, including DLC, maybe that's what I'll do, too. Guess I'll see how I feel when I get to that point.

Of course, they also say there's a bass version or whatever you want to call it coming out soon. When that is released, I can start all over from Satisfaction with the bass!

My kids have played quite a bit, my son more than my daughter, and we've played together on multi-player mode several times. Lots of fun!

Right now I'm using Scale Runner to warm up at the beginning of practice sessions. I use Riff Repeater to master troublesome phrases, relying heavily on the ability to force up the level of phrases. I'm working on getting the songs I've played already up to Master Mode, and I'm working up three new songs for Event 7 (I Miss You, Sunshine of Your Love, and that Andronicus song.)

Plus, I'm still working on Mastering the three free Christmas downloads to play in front of a live audience this Christmas. I've got God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen pretty much nailed. Working on Carol of the Bells and have it up to 82k so far. Haven't even tried We Three Kings yet. I've got 7 months.

Sort of unrelated to Rocksmith, but not entirely, I've acquired 7 more guitars since I started. Rocksmith gave me GAS. I don't plan to keep them all. Ubisoft might want to mention that when they promote the game. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has bought music-related stuff as a result of playing Rocksmith. Heck, even if you don't count the guitars, I've burned through at least two sets of strings in 4 months and I had to buy a decent (i.e. wide and soft) strap for my LP Special; the little nylon strap just wasn't cutting it for 2-4 hour sessions. Since the leather strap was a little stiff, I also got strap locks. Not to mention that I bought a whole XBox just so I could play Rocksmith - and along with the XBox has come XBox Live membership, Netflix, DLC, etc.

I'd say Rocksmith is here to stay. I sure hope so.

Here's my summary page from my progress tracking spreadsheet as of March 6th (This was back when I was having issues copying the fill colors into my blog.):

Apart from the fact that my spreadsheet design skills are improving, look at the scores. From 2 to 12 songs with scores over 200k. Not sure that this means I'm a "good guitarist," but without a doubt I have learned to play a bunch of songs by playing Rocksmith.